Young Flame is more than a poet, more than an artist, more than a writer.
I think all of us are more than what society labels us as, more than a teacher, more than
a doctor.
I'm a sister, I'm a daughter, I'm a friend.
And Young Flame is just that persona of all of those things, magnified.
So if I had to label it, yes, I would say I'm a very passionate artist within the realm
of spoken word, but the long definition, I don't know, dot, dot, dot, I guess.
And then you guys make your own definition and hopefully it's a good one.
What I see, what I see is different from what you guys may see.
See the reflection that reflects off of my eyes may leave me to gray while you see blue
skies.
And like slam, I see my back up against a brick wall with a Mack truck two inches in front
of my face.
I see myself having to succeed or else be called a disgrace and unlike Mace, everything may
not feel so good.
I may not live in the hood, but who says I never did or never could.
From Chicago, you know, born and raised, actually I was technically born on the west side of
Chicago until the age of like, I think three or four.
And then my mom and I moved to the south side.
So I claimed the south side, but I always had love for the west side.
Jill Scott, Lauren Hill, Eric Abadou, those are women in the industry that are just, that
either have done it or have set a strong foundation of doing it or are doing it, you know, and
I'm not a singer by any means, but they've inspired me because they stay true to who
they are.
You know, I can listen to any Lauren Hill album, any Jill Scott CD, any Eric Abadou CD,
and it's like, I feel where they're coming from.
And I'm hoping that this next project of mine and hopefully my first project of more than
point that people heard it and they really feel like, wow, I can relate to young flame.
I can relate to her.
So I would definitely say those are my top three inspirations.
I was always too slow and she was always so slick.
At least that's what she wanted me to think.
I remember getting so used to the smell that at one point it didn't even stink.
It just became like this natural fragrance.
But through it all, she remained on my A-list though at night I would cry wondering why
she continued to lie to me.
The second project is coming up, it's going to be two-part, you're going to have the regular
CD component, but then there's going to be a DVD component, which is going to be a series
of videos.
Not every track on the CD is going to have a video, but it's going to be my five to
seven videos on there.
And I just feel as though this journey is going to be the journey of my thoughts, not
only since my first project, which is six years ago, but from adolescence to now.
So from 12, 13 to 32, right?
So it's a lot of content I'm trying to put in here.
And to have that audio and visual, to have both of those elements, I just think it's
going to be a great journey for my fans, hopefully.
I'm very honest, very truthful, it's going to be talking about love, women, men, both
separately and in an entity of relationship, family, just personal things within myself.
Just my journey.
So I'm really excited about it.
You know, it's going to be totally different than Boiling Point, it's going to have a musicality
to it, so you can put it in your CD player and just kind of go and flow with it.
My first video that I launched for is called Fantasy, was featuring a phenomenal, phenomenal
singer Allegra Dolores.
I've been getting so much love on it.
Thank you all so much for going to my YouTube channel and viewing it and sharing it on Facebook
and Twitter.
I mean, it's been amazing.
Every other video will be part of the DVD collection.
So hopefully, you know, you guys just kind of, you know, stick with me, you know, stay
on my Twitter, stay on my Facebook, I definitely be letting you guys know of any updates with
the project.
Right now, it's slated for December of this year, but if not, hopefully no later than March
of 2013.
It's just my journey and I'm just kind of revealing that journey to you guys.
It's just, it's going to be real raw and real and honest and I'm just, I'm hoping that
it's where we're received.
So journey without coming soon, be on the lookout for it.
My poetry is therapeutic, you know, for me.
I have a piece called I don't want to be in love, I just want to be in like, it's a signature
piece.
That particular piece is therapeutic for me because it's, again, it's still an honest
piece and it definitely comes from, from experience, but it's one of those pieces where whenever
I've gone out on a bad date or whenever a relationship that I'm in doesn't work out
or anything like that, I can think about that piece and actually feel better.
I know with a guy met indirectly, who by happenstance just might fit in this unattainable
mode, 50-50, masculinity, sensitivity, height, size, wouldn't even matter just as long as
he can deal with me, the type of life that doesn't test me, you know, a help made brother
that actually helps and doesn't stress me.
As a matter of fact, one that only wants the best for me.
As a matter of fact, one who sees the bills and writes the checks for me, as a matter of
fact.
There was a prayer that I sent out about maybe two months ago, two or three months ago, where
there's a show called Burst is in Flow on TV1 and I wanted to be on this show.
They did season one, they were gearing up for season two, I didn't quite know when, but
I just kept praying like, Lord, I really want to be a part of this show in any capacity.
Can you not?
I do the prayer multiple times, I send an email out to the producer of the show, director
of the show, the talent agent, everybody.
I finally get an email back saying, hey, we're doing the Chicago Live event sponsored by
Lexus, wanted to know if you wanted to submit a piece for it.
Submit the piece, I get an email back less than a week later saying we definitely want
you to perform.
It was just like my dream come true and to be able to perform for such a phenomenal brand
like Lexus, phenomenal show like TV1 vs. Flow, phenomenal network like TV1 in my city,
repping my city, doing what I love, I couldn't have scripted it better.
So on the stage, yes, young flame, off the stage, I'm not necessarily young flame, but
I am still an artist like I said earlier and I've actually had the opportunity to be in
a couple movies as well as a TV show called Chicago Code and those particular, and I was
in Transformers 3, that was my first one which was huge to work with Michael Bay and
Tyrese and Shia LaBeouf and then I was in Contagion as well.
So I worked with Lawrence Fishburne and then I had a re-encouraging feature extra role
in Fox's Chicago Code.
I played a police officer so that was humbling too just to kind of go through what real female
police officers go through in terms of not only putting on all the gear and the hair,
but just the differences between how they're treated and if acts would I ever want to go
into acting or modeling or anything like that, absolutely, you know, I've done print
work as well as I've done commercial work with a TV one for my Blackies Beautiful campaign
and that was very humbling, I got my own commercial for that and again with the movies and stuff.
So I've been in theater since 2002 and a lot of people don't know that.
That's kind of where I'm at with it, wherever God sees me is where I'm at, but right now
I am really focused on the poetry and just, you know, trying to see where that takes me,
but sky's the limit, sky's the limit on where I can go and hopefully where I do go.
So I am a fraction of we, but that she be me and I'm beautiful.
The love in my heart reflects how suitable.
See understand we gotta stand for our style, man.
But the norm, why conform just profile, man.
You see these words I give, I still smell the newness and the pride that's inside I celebrate.
You knew this, but if by chance your clueless, all you gotta do is keep being the beautiful,
wonderful, incomparable you, young flame.
